Articles for the Month of August 2013

I have finished a first draft of a chapter (for a forthcoming book) in which I seek to defend and illustrate my idea that the genre of prophetic books might best be understood as “prophetic fictions”. (Using “fiction” as I think Alter does to signal a concern for the artistry of presentation rather than as a synonym for “untrue” ;)

I think this idea works several attempts to define the genre together keeping (some of) the best features of each, I also believe it has interpretative power.

BUT I no longer have colleagues down the corridor whom I can bully into reading and criticising my work :( If you would be willing to read nearly 5,500 words and to comment on the flow of the argument or other features that might help me sharpen or improve the chapter I would be really grateful. I am not so much after specialist knowledge as help strengthening the presentation of the ideas.

Here’s a post from five years ago that I wish had generated more conversation… I wonder if it will this time ;)

Linking to Geoff’s “Creativity in Theological Education” post and then watching the brilliant presentation (in just 20 minutes) by Sugata Mitra the Indian “Hole in the Wall” man (on TED) “Can kids teach themselves?” has got me thinking (again) about how we do theological education the wrong way round.

[By the way if you have only heard about Sugata Mitra’s work it is well worth spending 20 minutes to watch the man himself, whether you agree with him or not, he is a fine presenter!]

He calls his suggestions “outdoctrination” because they are the opposite of indoctrination. In indoctrination a teacher who “knows better” tells a student the answers. Most theological education is built from the ground up on an indoctrination model. Teachers (or possibly the school boards who govern the teachers – quis custodiet custodes) decide the curriculum. They then decide how it is to be taught and how success is to be measured. Students then are fitted into this mold. Evidently, despite our efforts to steer clear of “imposing” our conclusions on students, this is indoctrination. After all, though we may seek to avoid imposing answers, we did impose the questions!

Why not a system designed the other way up. Start from real issues and situations and get teachers to assist students to learn what they need/want to approach these issues. There would be severe difficulties creating “suitable” learning outcomes, and perhaps worse ones working out how to measure them – but I suspect the real measure of success would be seen when students “leave college” and really start to learn!

[I suspect Dr Mitra, a professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle, thinks his work only applies to kids, and that adults are too far calcified in the context, but I wonder, humans have more capacity to make do and adapt, I believe that even “mature students” can still learn if we offered them “minimally invasive theological education”!]

A group of us met last night to plot a video (probably narration with animation one of the group is a young, skilled and creative animator with friends who are similarly equipped) most of the rest of us are established pastors and teachers.

The goal is to develop something that is sharable on social media and/or websites, and hopefully therefore also attractive and motivating people to share it!

I’ll confess that our starting point was a discussion of an attempt to do something similar that was too long, not really attractive (we thought) to its target audience and theologically narrow.

We settled on the title (at least for our use) of “The Bible in 3 minutes” and envisage a countdown, to encourage people to stay tuned, and demonstrate our commitment to brevity ;) Jonathan says that 3 minutes is about 300 words (allowing for something other than words and the desire not to gabble too ;) So here’s the challenge: Can you try to tell me the story of the Bible in 300 words?

The group will share these attempts (anonymously) on Google Docs and pick out the features/ideas we like. There is no pay, and little glory (in this life) on offer, but I’d really appreciate your efforts. I’ve already had some offers but so far every attempt has needed WAY over 300 words ;)

The capstone volume that completes Bill Loader’s previous five volumes on sex and sexuality in the the world of early Christianity is announced. Among other things this book seeks to make his scholarly and full treatment in the previous five volumes more accessible to non-specialist readers. This is an important work, and if you are concerned in any way in discussions of sex and sexuality in the churches today you need it!